Gluten free crispy vegetable spring rolls

When Miles, my brother A, his friend D and I went for our day trip to London we popped into China Town to have a look at some of the goodies on offer there! We went into a little Chinese grocery shop and picked up a few bits- one of them being bean curd sheets.

I picked these up because I remembered reading somewhere that you could make gluten free spring rolls using bean curd and after several failed attempts with rice wrappers I decided to give it a go. However because of all the failed attempts at producing a spring roll that you could pick up without it disintegrating into your fingers as you tried to devour it, I put off making the bean curd sheet variety. I really wish I hadn’t because it is so easy to handle, it was a shock to both Miles and I that this substance was actually gluten free! You buy wrappers hardened, and then have to soak them in warm water before using just like rice wrappers, but they have a rubbery like texture which if handled carefully is actually really nice to work with. You can fill them with whatever you fancy! The world is your oyster ;).

You will need:

– Half a pack of bean curd sheets (get from your local oriental store or you could probably order them online)

– warm water

– 2 tsp gluten free soy sauce

– 1 tsp sesame oil

– 1 egg yolk

– 1 tsp rice wine vinegar

– 1 tsp 5 spice

– pinch of salt

– 2 spring onions (in small cubes)

– 1 courgette (in small cubes)

– a dash of olive oil (to fry the spring rolls)

Method:

1. Pop your bean curd sheets into a container with hot but not boiling water for about 5 minutes until they are soft and rubbery.

2. Meanwhile, into a bowl, place the soy sauce, sesame oil, egg yolk, rice wine vinegar, 5 spice and salt and mix well add your veg and mix again so it is all covered in the dressing.

3. When your bean curd wrappers are softened, lift them out of the water and lay on a flat surface, cut into the size you require and then add your filling to the top of the wrapper in a line.

Then fold the longer edges in and from the filling end of the wrap, start to roll it all together.

Repeat until all of your filling has been used up.

4. Heat a little vegetable oil in a wok, when it is very hot, gently add the spring rolls to the wok and shallow fry for 5-7 minutes until golden and crispy.

5. Remove from the frying pan and enjoy with your favourite dipping sauce.